Beating Dead Horses! (no offense to any PETA supporters!!!!)

Posted Mon August 21, 2006 3:33 pm, by MA L. written to PlanetFeedback

**Please allow me to preface this by stating that nowhere during the course of this letter do I suggest, encourage or advocate the beating of horses or any other animal!**

As a long-time user of PFB, I implore my fellow PFB regulars to pay attention when responding to letters in the Top 20!

All too often, a letter gets prominent attention in this very public area for FAR too long simply because we as regulars keep commenting and responding LONG after the topic should have died.

For example, Tabitha and her Subway high chair fiasco, The Eljer toilet incident and my personal LEAST favorite, the allegedly whiney children and their mother, "Nichole Von Trapp."

People are STILL posting responses when the letter should have gone on to that great circular file in the sky!

I beg of you, I plead with you, (heck, fairywithfangs, rxgirl and Lisa Smith have all offered money!)look at the date on the original letter. If it is more than 2 weeks old, for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE DON'T ADD ANOTHER POST!!!!

Put something in your blog, try and send an email, ANYTHING, just don't add your $.02 worth to a letter that has long since passed it's expiration date!

It has been almost two weeks since the last comment, so I guess I madethe deadline. I don't have anything substantial to offer, but as aformer hs teacher, I am amused by ill fated attempts to change thebehavior of others. Your intentions are good however.

first of all some of us may not get on until two weeks past the date,and still would like to comment on it. Don't ya think this is a tadbit selfish? just becasue you have the time of day to look at thesewhen ever, some of us have other lives and responsibilities... just myview point.

Mea Culpa! OK, I admit I unleashed the PFB beast here, and now Iguess it's my job to reign it back in. (Next time I'll know better!)

While I recognize that your first post about PETA appeared to be justas tongue-in-cheek as mine, somehow it spiraled into a horrific flamewar which was EXACTLY what I myself was protesting with my letter (Itrust you actually READ my letter before you posted, right?)

I have been on PFB for years - Even back when it was YouGetHeard.com. I have recommended it to MANY people both professionally andpersonally and when comments like this spiral out of control that areirrelevant, inappropriate and COMPLETELY off topic, it makes thecommunity look like we're nothing but a bunch of vicious pirhana withnothing better to do than attack each other. Then other people (andpossibly

I don't want something that I promote to others to give that kind ofimpression. Clearly it would make ME look bad and I'm not ABOUT topurposefully make myself look like that!

Now, I sincerely hope you won't think I am singling you out because Iknow you were not alone in the discussion by any means. But sinceyour message kind of "launched a thousand other messages" I amaddressing this (sort of) to you.

If you disagree with a commenter, fine. Disagree all you want, butthe disagreement really needs to be relevant to the original letter orplease take it offline.

When people start nit picking every comment, getting offended or irateand then get off topic (and I admit, I have been guilty of that on afew occasions) it contibutes to messages being here WAY longer thanthey need to be - that's why I posted my letter.

Sure I don't HAVE to read Nichole's post or the Eljer toilet postagain - I already know that nothing new has been added. But it stillirks me that another really good letter might be out there waiting forsome feedback (hence, the name PLANET FEEDBACK) and it's not gettingup there because of things like this.

So I hope that you can appreciate where I am coming from andrespectfully ask that you help me out by being the bigger person andjust letting this go before the post gets any more long winded than italready has.

OK, forgive me if something like this was posted below. I find that Ireply to top 20 letters only because they are so easy to find. MaybeI am doing something wrong but I find it incredibly difficult to findthe "new" letters. I usually use My Yahoo to find them since if Iclick on "shared letters," I get a search engine.

It could also be that new people to the site think that they cancomment on the new letters (at least that is what I thought atfirst).

The point that I am hoping to make is that if it were easier to seeand post on the "new" letters, maybe the top 20 would change moreoften. (it's no fun to be the only person to post to a letter)

Perhaps instead of pleading to the users, you should plead to the PFBteam to change the qualifications of getting a letter on the top 20. If it's not there, people won't post (for the most part).

If it bothers you so much, just stop reading the letter.. lol, that'swhat I do. I don't think asking users to not comment on old letters isthe answer. Take me for example, I was off of PFB for a while and nowI just came back, and I'm going to participate in the letters I'vemissed :P.

I find it funny you posted a letter that will most likely becomesomething you are trying to fight against....

. . .that the messages never be commented on again. I am also notblaming the OP's for posting the letters in the first place.

My personal (and believe me, I KNOW it is JUST my opinion!)frustration comes from posts that sit on the top 20 for WEEKS with nonew advice or information added and just collect snips and barbs fromresponders and a continual re-hash of information that was postedalready.

I have personally emailed Mr. Helpful about this subject and there isapparently some sort of calculation involved that automaticallyselects which messages wind up on the Top 20. What people don'tseemto understand, is that when we post trivial (and you have toadmit, most of the posts added beyond a week or two are assuredlytrivial!) comments, it affects that calculation and keeps the messageup there longer than it has to.

There doesn't seem to be any mechanism to manually intervene with aletter that is clearly serving no useful purpose anymore and wouldmake room for a new letter to be reviewed.

And to those people who chose to take my comments here personally,please read my letter again. I did not TELL anyone what they shoulddo, I was merely asking. I was also seeking to make light of thesubject because it is kind of humorous that more than a month later,we're STILL debating whether kids should be singing in a dressing room(& sorry, Nichole, nothing personal against you, but your letter isassuredly going down in the hall of fame just for the incredibleresponse it received!) when thre HAS to be something else new we couldmove on to.

All I am asking for is for people to use a little discretion and notpost replies to old letters just for the sake of posting.

Whereas my letter is STILL in the top 20... I posted on it June 26and then my next post was on August 1 or something like that... sodon't blame me! Over a month without adding anything to it on my end.

Regardless of that, I do wish that the Top 20 would have a timeout onthem so they would slowly fall of the list. I would suggest thatafter a 6-8 weeks from the original letter submit date, it is noteligible for the Top 20 and if it is on the Top 20, it would just fallaway at that point.

You could still comment on the letters, they just would not be in theTop 20.

I looked at some of the top 20 list and will someone explain to meabout Lisa S. who's 15th right now? She didn't even post a complaintagainst a company did she? Perhaps I don't understand everythingabout this site.

I wasn't aware there was a time limit. If you personally don't wantto post then don't. But i wasn't aware that i had to listen tosomeone tell me when to post and for how long. I was pretty sure thiswas my discretion.

Actually it is the regular posters that keep the postings around,including my Eljer one which you made it your business to mention. Amanda made a comment today on it, even though I haven't addedanything in days. In fact, it was your message that she added to onmy post. If she had let things slide as you and others said to do, itwould go off the list.

I respond to messages about me or about the situation. I would be finewith no further comments made on it and it dropping from the top 20list. I know the regulars are going to come after me for thismessage. I couldn't help commenting about the irony of Amandacontinuing on my post, given what was said here.

I really love this letter. Gave me a smile and got to the point of thematter. The only thing I am upset about is that you beat me to it! Actually mine was going to be a blog, but you wrote it better anyway.

I dont think my dollar idea worked to well, as Children are still notwanted at Kaufmann's and Eljer Employees are still harrassingpeople....
Maybe I need to switch to ice cream cones....

I do hope that PBF takes this idea into consideration or perhapslimits the time on the top 20, kinda like they do for 15 minutes offame.

MaLoper, I **heart** you more and more each day, despite the fact thatyou are a Clevelander. Haha (inside joke)

Anyway, I agree wholeheartedly with you. As someone else saiddownthread, I think it's mostly the new people who come and (notrecognizing the stench of dead horse) click the topic and comment,simply because it's new to them. Meanwhile the rest of us are twichingwith frustration at seeing them NEVER GO AWAY. LOL - With yourwonderful new post, I'm sure the good newbies will concur.

On the other hand, and I hate to be a naysayer, there might be a few,trollish individuals who enjoy the stench of dead horse, and decide tomake it their goal in life to keep them alive, just to spite us. LOL

Gasp! Are you advocating the torture of dead animals? LOL...love thetitle!

Hooray for your letter, and for referring to the "children not wanted"lady as Nichole Von Trapp. I thought it was pretty funny, conjuringup an image of the dressing rooms being alive with the sound of kidssinging "silly songs."

Seriously, you are right, and I think it is time someone made thispoint clearly. I love it that the letters are available for ourperusal after the fact, but maybe it would be a good thought for themto be relocated to an archive after a month or so, so we don't getre-appearing letters that we're all sick of. Maybe Mr. Helpful willhave a suggestion? *ahem* :)

The all time winner has to be the undercooked poptarts letter! I thinkit was finally removed after some shameless pleading by members(me...haha).

I think most of the problem is that new people or lurkers click on theTop Twenty letters usually for the first time and decide to comment.Then the regular users, after seeing that a letter is still in the TopTwenty or just our of curiosity, continue to check the letters to seeif there's anything new. The ones reading it for the first time don'tbother to look at all the previous comments and end up repeating thesame things over and over again, which is what keeps the letter in theTop Twenty. I think that was the case in all the examples youmentioned. It makes it hard for new letters to squeeze their way in.

Maybe after a certain amount of time, a letter could be retired toanother portion of PFB where everyone can beat it to death. Maybe itcan even be called "Dead Horses" (with a disclaimer, of course...haha). Or, maybe PFB could figure out a new method of determining theTop Twenty so that the letters change more frequently. (Sorry, Mr.Helpful.)

Letters do pass a point where the comments are redundant and no longeruseful.